Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is a graduate of Northwestern University where she edited the school's literary magazine. She has high hopes for a journalism career in New York City but knows that the competition is fierce. Andy goes to an interview for a job as assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), editor of Runway Magazine and the most powerful woman in the world of fashion. It's a position that a million young women in New York would kill for.
Andy doesn't know a thing about haute couture and when she enters the posh offices, she finds herself in a strange new world populated by super-slim fashion divas and women obsessed with accessories. Miranda's chief assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) loves her job and finds it laughable that Andy thinks she has a chance of getting the position. So she is stunned when the new girl is hired on the basis of her brains and commitment to the work ethic.
The pressure to keep Miranda happy is incredible, and Andy soon finds herself working until late in the night; she is at her boss's beck and call fetching coffee and food and making innumerable deliveries. Her boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) finds it hard to accept Andy's commitment to her new job, especially when she gets a trendy new wardrobe and actually enjoys her new look. When her Midwestern father visits, he, too, is astonished to see her working so hard. He reminds her that she could have attended Stanford Law School and here she is working as a mere assistant. On the evening he is in town, Andy is trying desperately to get Miranda home from Miami during a hurricane in the area. The true test of her creativity comes when her boss orders her to obtain a copy of the latest unreleased Harry Potter novel for her twin daughters. She has to rely on the help of Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), a wheeler-dealer who has a crush on her, to pull off this difficult assignment.
The only one in the office who gives her any helpful counsel on dealing with Miranda is Nigel (Stanley Tucci), the art director who points out to her how lucky she is to be working at a magazine that has "published some of the greatest artists of the 20th century" and has shaped the fashion styles of millions of Americans. "How do you know you're doing well working for Miranda? Your personal life falls apart," Nigel explains. "When your whole life goes up in smoke, that's when it's time for a promotion."
The Devil Wears Prada is based on the internationally best-selling novel by Lauren Weisberger, who worked as an assistant at Vogue. Director David Frankel does not cave in to the easy and sloppy move of making Miranda into a total monster. The inimitable Meryl Streep plays her as an accomplished and demanding woman who has built an empire on hard work and the pursuit of excellence. Her expectations of Andy and Emily are high but she judges herself harshly as well.
Miranda uses power to hurt people and to beat up those who would undermine her kingdom. Eventually Andy comes face to face with her own obsession with success and the kind of person she has become. The lessons she learns from Miranda about the nature of the competitive marketplace are ones that all of us have to learn early on in the world of work. Anne Hathaway puts in a stellar performance as Andy — she makes her into someone we empathize with every step of the way. The Devil Wears Prada is a smashing success both as a portrait of the fashion world in New York and as a touching and alluring story of a young woman's initiation into the moral and ethical decisions that form character on the job.
Special DVD features include: a commentary by director David Frankel, producer Wendy Finerman, costume designer Patricia Field, and more; Featurettes: "Trip to the Big Screen," "NYC and Fashion," "Fashion Visonary Patricia Field," and "Getting Valentino"; 15 Deleted Scenes; and a Gag Reel.
